Stone Brewing Co. Announces New 4-Packs

Stone Brewing Co. this week announced that they would be releasing Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, their Black IPA previously limited to draft and 22oz bottles in 12oz 4-packs. They will also be transitioning Stone Ruination IPA and OAKED Arrogant Bastard from 12oz 6-packs to 12oz 4-packs.

It will be nice to have the 8.7% ABV Sublimely Self-Righteous available in 12oz bottles for those times you don’t want or need to drink an entire 22oz. And personally I think that removing two bottles and dropping the price a bit from Oaked Arrogant Bastard and Ruination should help with sticker shock as well a bit. Speaking of price, Stone tells me price per bottle for Ruination and Oaked Arrogant Bastard isn’t changing.

As you’ve probably noticed beer prices tend fluctuate from store to store, I’ve seen the 6-packs going for anywhere from $15 to as high as $16.50 which works out to $2.50-$2.75 per 12 ounce bottle. Keeping the price per bottle the same would equate to $10 or $11 4-packs, which sounds about right as Stone PR Specialist Sabrina LoPiccolo said in an email that they should retail for the same price as 6-packs of Stone Pale Ale, Stone IPA and Stone Levitation Ale, commonly between $10 and $11.

(As an aside, does this mean that if a particular store charges more for say Stone IPA 6-packs than they do for Levitation Al 6-packs they’re just making more profit on the IPA?)

Ruination and Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale will continue to be available 22oz bombers as well, but in my mind look much less attractive price-wise now. I don’t know that I’ve ever bought a 6-pack of Ruination, but I’ve picked up plenty of 22oz bottles of it over the years. But the 4-pack, at a lower cost per ounce and in smaller servings seems like a much better way to go. It’s far easier to drink two 12oz bottles than it is to only drink half a bomber depending on your mood.

4-packs for Sublimely Self-Righteous should be hitting shelves very soon (if not already) and the 6-packs of Ruination and Oaked AB will be coming out as current 6-pack inventory runs out. Which means if you’re still seeing 6-packs a few months from now you might want to take a good look at the date stamps on the bottles.